Cup Drivers Conclude Tire Test At Daytona

November 4, 2009 11:30 a.m. EST

Daytona Beach, FL (AHN) - They may be in the stretch drive for The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title, but that didn't keep one-third of the series' drivers from venturing to Daytona International Speedway Monday and Tuesday for a Goodyear tire test. Chase drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Kurt Busch were among 17 drivers in 18 cars that tested various compounds for the official tire supplier for NASCAR over the two-day session. "The sequence has been to try as many sets of tires as we can and do it in a simulation with the drafting," Busch said. "When you run two or three cars by themselves in a simulation draft, it doesn't do it justice until you really push everybody out there together to get cars sliding, to have some cars pushing, to have some cars on the loose side. It really gives us a good indication of what changes we're making on the tires when we have such a big draft.'' Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, David Ragan, Sam Hornish Jr., Brad Keselowski, David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose, Regan Smith, A.J. Allmendinger, Scott Speed, Erik Darnell, Paul Menard and Sterling Marlin were also on hand for the test. A total of 18 cars used both single car and drafting sessions that consisted of 15, 20 and 30-lap runs. "We came here in May and they made the restrictor plates bigger to simulate the same lap times as what we do in the draft and that didn't show the same wear," McMurray said. "The fact that they brought so many cars here this time, I think we have 16 cars doing a draft at a time. The cars are not driving really that good, they are sliding around a lot and Goodyear is able to get a lot more accurate data by having so many cars here."